Use Flickr for your desktop slideshow


  1. Posts : 1,519
    El Capitan / Windows 10
       #1

    Use Flickr for your desktop slideshow


    I've attached a cool program my son wrote originally to fetch a random image from Flickr (Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing) and set it as your desktop background. I thought it was so cool that I added a few new features and thought I'd post it here for feedback.

    Flippr.zip

    Here's the content of the readme.txt file:

    Code:
    Flippr
    
    
    Description: 
        
        Flippr is a SmallBasic program that "flips" the desktop background to a 
        (optionally) random image from Flickr (www.flickr.com).
    
    
    Usage:
    
        Flippr [/window] [taglist]
    
        /window        Show a status window in the upper right corner of the 
                desktop while Flippr is working.
        tagist        One or more Flickr tags to search for separated by 
                spaces. If the tag contains spaces surround it with 
                double quotes.
    
    
    Notes:
    
        This program was originally written as a test of Microsoft SmallBasic 
        (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx) by my 16 year
        old son following the "Getting Started Guide" included with the 
        product. The program name was his idea -- Flickr/Flippr -- clever...
    
        "Hey, Dad. Check this out! Look what I wrote!"
    
        I was blown away. He'd never written a line of code in his life and
        somebody on the internet turned him on to this one day and the next
        he's writing cool programs. Show it to your kids.
    
        I added command line parsing, the status window and created a Windows 7
        Task Scheduler XML with an installer script. Oh, and this readme file.
    
    Files:
    
        Flippr.exe        Main executable. Depends on 
                    SmallBasicLibrary.dll below.
    
        Flippr.sb        SmallBasic source code for Flippr.exe
    
        Flippr.xml        Task Scheduler task for installation with
                    Install.cmd below
    
        Install.cmd        Task Scheduler install script, edit Flippr.xml
                    per the instructions below and run this to 
                    automatically change your desktop background
                    on a schedule.
    
        readme.txt        this file
    
        SmallBasicLibrary.dll    SmallBasic runtime DLL, leave in same folder
                    as Flipper.exe
    
    
    Flippr.xml:
    
        Hopefully you know something about XML by now.  If not, it's just a
        fancy text file.  For those of you that know about XPath just change
    
            /Task/Actions/Exec/Command/text()
        
        to the full path to Flippr.exe
    
            /Task/Actions/Exec/Arguments/text()
    
        to the desired command line arguments and
    
            /Task/Triggers/CalendarTrigger/Repetition/Interval/text()
    
        to the run interval i.e. PT1H is 1 hour, PT10M is 10 minutes, etc. 
        
        If you're lost at this point read on otherwise just run Install.cmd
        to install the scheduler task and happy Flippn...
    
        Rather than explaining what XML is in detail just do the following to
        get going:
    
        1) Open Flippr.xml with notepad.
        2) Search for "<Interval>" without the quotes.
        3) Replace the text between <Interval> and </Interval> with PT1H if
        you want the desktop wallpaper to flip every hour, PT2H every two
        hours, PT10M every 10 minutes, PT30M every 30 minutes and so on.
        4) Search for "<Command>".
        5) Replace the text between <Command> and </Command> with the full
        path to Flippr.exe.  If you move it later you'll have to edit this
        file again and rerun Install.cmd to update it.
        6) Search for "<Arguments>".
        7) Replace the text between <Arguments> and </Arguments> with the 
        desired program arguments as documented in the Usage section above.
        8) Save the file and run Install.cmd to install the scheduler task.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 4,364
    Windows 11 21H2 Current build
       #2

    Interesting - Display Fusion does that as well....
      My Computer


 

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